Phyllo is fattening

My baking school break is over and now it's The Art of Pies - all pie, all the time! Our first pie was Custard-Filled Phyllo with Orange Syrup. I've never worked with phyllo before and it was pretty simple, but not very low-fat.


Sheets of phyllo were brushed with butter and laid in a pie plate. The filling included: milk, butter, sugar, cream of wheat (all heated until just boiled), and eggs, orange juice and vanilla (whisked together and then added to the previous cooled-down mixture). More buttered phyllo was laid on top of mixture once it had been poured into the pie plate and the sides of the phyllo were scrunched up to form the ruffled look you see here.


After baking (approx. 40 minutes), an orange syrup consisting of sugar, water, cinnamon, cloves, orange and lemon peel and Grand Marnier (brought to a boil and cooled for 5 minutes) is poured over top of the finished pie to give it some flavour. Once the pie is fully cooled, it can be dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon. I had a piece for breakfast today and it was very rich and flaky - not as flavourful, I don't think, as some of the other pies in our course outline will be (Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie and Cherry Cheese Streusel Pie!). After sampling a little piece, I usually give away everything I bake but not sure that will be the case for this class..

Mini b-day cupcakes

I tried out my new Cupcake Kit in honour of my sister's birthday today. These are vanilla with a lemon cream cheese icing and were my first attempt at mini cupcakes. The recipe was meant to create 12 medium-sized cupcakes, but I reduced baking time to 15 minutes from 20 and ended up with 36 minis instead. They tasted like a denser version of angel food cake and the icing was nice and lemony - a really sweet combination, so I might try this batter recipe with a lighter icing next time.

All cookies should be pink

I saw this recipe on Design*Sponge and had to try it. I've always loved the look of macarons and was surprised that they weren't as easy to make as I had thought. My first batch fell flat - I realize now that I overmixed them - but my second batch turned out pretty well. The shells are made of almonds, icing sugar and egg whites (whipped with sugar until firm). Baking time is only 10 minutes but I left them out to set for an hour beforehand, as the recipe instructed.


The ganache filling is amazing - and for good reason. Bittersweet chocolate, toffee and heavy cream are never a bad combo. I have some left over that I am hoping to use in another recipe this week.


I just need to work on getting them all the same size next time!

The last cake

Our last cake was a quick one. Decadent Chocolate cake batter includes bittersweet chocolate, butter, flour, sugar and eggs (separated, with the whites and a bit of cream of tartar whipped into firm peaks). Baking time is 15 minutes and the cake needs to be cooled completely in the fridge before being glazed. The glaze (chocolate, butter and corn syrup) is heated over a water bath and then drizzled and smoothed over the cake (mmmm....). We used heated white chocolate to pipe a variety of designs on parchment paper, which were peeled off after the chocolate had cooled and set. Mine resulted in an, um, interesting design which I'm calling 'abstract'.


This is a super-rich recipe so servings sizes should be small. You could also use this recipe to make molten chocolate cake. (Which I will be trying - I've always wanted to make those!) Simply fill some ramekins 3/4 full with the batter and place a Lindt chocolate in each one and top up with more batter and bake. I have a month off before The Art of Pies starts so am planning to try making those, as well as macarons - they seem like the perfect spring-like thing to make.

I heart cheesecake!

Finally! Cheesecake is my favourite dessert ever so I was excited to make this Baked Raspberry Chiffon version. It was all I could do not to grab a knife and fork and eat this for dinner. But I shared - because it's nice and because consuming this much cheese in one sitting would not end well. The graham cracker crust was what you'd expect: graham crumbs, butter, ground almonds and sugar. The filling included a lot more ingredients than I've seen in a cheesecake before, some of which were: Baker's (Quark) cheese, egg yolks, sugar, vegetable oil, bread flour and butter milk. Whipped egg whites were what gave it a light, fluffy texture.

The raspberry topping was made by boiling frozen raspberries, water and corn starch. Cheesecake should be baked at a low temperature for a long time (this one was baked at 325 degrees for 20 minutes and then 20-25 minutes at 300 degrees). I will definitely be making this recipe again.